Steven Smith has become embroiled in a bizarre war of words with Monty Panesar, after hitting back at the former England spinner's suggestion that he should be made to feel "guilty" for his role in the "Sandpaper-gate" ball-tampering scandal seven years ago by invoking the memory of Panesar's failed appearance on Celebrity Mastermind.
Smith, who lost the Australia captaincy after his team was caught using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during a Test match in South Africa in 2017-18, has stepped back into the role on a temporary basis for Friday's first Ashes Test in Perth, with Pat Cummins missing with a back injury.
In a pre-series interview with an online betting company, Panesar had suggested that England's players should question the ethics of his re-appointment, and called on the UK media to add to the pressure too. "If it were the opposite, the Australian media would be all over it," Panesar said. "They would have said, if it was any of the English players, 'the cheaters have arrived.' Right?"
In what appeared to have been a pre-arranged answer at his pre-match press conference, Smith declared that he was going to go "off-topic" to respond to Panesar's comments.
"Who in the room has seen Mastermind, and Monty Panesar on that? Any of you?" Smith said, before listing several of the flustered answers that Panesar had given to presenter John Humphrys in a moment that went viral back in 2019.
"Those of you that have will understand where I'm coming from. If you haven't, do yourself a favour because it is pretty comical. Anyone that believes that Athens is in Germany, that's a start, or that Oliver Twist is a season of the year and America is a city.
"It doesn't really bother me, those comments. That's as far as I'll go with that one," he said, subsequently adding that he was "pretty chilled" on his return to the captaincy. "I'm a lot more relaxed these days."
The spat rapidly went viral on both sides of the world, as the UK woke up to news of Smith's response, whereupon Panesar doubled down on his initial comments in an interview on the BBC, and subsequent column in The Telegraph.
"I've started, so I'll finish," Panesar wrote. "Those were the words I heard at the end of my Mastermind shocker six years ago. But if I'm guilty of anything, it is having bad general knowledge. And that is better than being a cheat.
"We've both made mistakes. I made my mine on a quiz show. He made his on the cricket field."
It was a continuation of a typically frenzied build-up to the Ashes, which has featured off-field barbs from former players on both sides, as well as some eye-catching headlines in the local newspapers.
Smith's reaction to Panesar's original comments did, however, appear to contradict his subsequent take on the Ashes phony war. "It's pretty standard," he added in his press conference. "I've been involved in a few now and there's always so many words said before the series. For us, I think it's about just ignoring the outside and concentrating on our processes, what we do well as a team, and trusting and backing that throughout."
Panesar, who claimed 167 wickets in 50 Test appearances, has not played Test cricket since featuring in England's 5-0 whitewash on the 2013-14 Ashes tour.
Last year, he briefly considered standing as an MP for George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain, but withdrew ahead of the General Election.
This article was updated at 6.30pm GMT following Panesar's response in his newspaper column.